When entering the gap between the October international match day, Liverpool swallowed the bitter fruit of three consecutive losses in various competitions, which was the first time Slot had encountered such a dilemma since he took charge last summer. This cliff-like decline completely makes the Premier League champion's lesions completely unable to hide.
After experiencing a crazy summer window of seven in and seven out, the team's 25/26 season's lineup is still in the "puzzle stage". Although the injury suspension is a worse situation, anyone with a discerning eye can see that some problems have long exceeded the scope of "shortness of people".
The Athletic authors Andrew Jones, Gregg Evans and Anantaajith Raghuraman wrote an article to discuss the crux of the Liverpool problem...
The opponents understood Heraffenberg through
Liverpool's unique skill last season was to tear apart the opponent's high-pressure and instantly penetrated the three midfielders. This style of play has two keys, and Heraffenberg happens to be the universal lock that can be twisted with both keys.
The first move is to rely on him to hold the ball and break through those defense lines that are not pressing enough. When the opponents came back and began to focus on him, the Reds immediately showed their plan B - let Arnold and Robertson, two full-backs, act as the engines of the backcourt. The following picture Dias's opening goal of the Champions League against Leverkusen at Anfield is the classic lesson plan:
In this case, the Liverpool central defender will hand the ball to the same side fullback, while the other side fullback will quietly get into the midfield. This time, the opponent has to stare at one more person in the midfield. The pressing system instantly shows a crack, and the passage of passing or pushing is torn open.
When the defender boldly stepped forward, Herafenberg would smartly withdraw and fill the position. This "you get in front of me and I'm making up for it" not only ensures the offensive force, but also stabilizes the defensive formation. Unfortunately, such a picture has almost disappeared in the past two months.
Although Kolkz is also involved in the organization, he is not the material for taking risks to pass the ball at all. In addition, the opponents generally sported a bus when facing the defending champion, which forced the Hungarian left-back to move forward and carry the ball when he was best at Bournemouth. Although Flynnon and Bradley on the other side can dribble the ball, they are still worse than Arnold's coolness in the midfield when they catch the ball and turn around and shoot the ball.
Ten days ago, Crystal Palace overturned the Red Army 2-1, and used its tight middle defense line to cooperate with the pressing of three narrow forwards to completely cut off Heraffenberg's catch route:
Whenever Liverpool's formation presses forward, Adam Walton sticks to the Dutch midfielder like a shadow. Three days later, Galatasaray played even more in the Champions League: they deliberately released the route passed to Heraffenberg, and blocked all short pass points, just waiting for him to catch the ball and instantly "catch the turtle in the jar".
Look at this shot: Gundogan runs in a roundabout way and blocks Alisson's route back to Van Dijk. When Osmaine goes to, the goalkeeper dares not pass the ball to Conat or Sobosloy. On the surface, Heraffenberg was unattended, but as soon as the ball reached his feet, Torrera rushed over and intercepted the ball. Finally the ball fell at Osmeen's feet:
This attack ended with Heraffenberg pulling down the opponent's forward from outside the penalty area and dyeing yellow. In this game at Chelsea, the Blues directly used their unique skills of man-to-man: Enzo Fernandez and Gusto stick to Heraffenberg and McAllister like candy, and the midfielder's easy receiving route was completely cut off.
When Heraffenberg received the ball in the backcourt (as shown below), he hesitated with a slow half-beat, and the Blues immediately seized the opportunity to block all the shot points. What's worse, because Sobosloy's retreat was a little slow, McAllister failed to advance in time:
Heraffenberg ended up barely passing the long pass to find Salah, and naturally he returned in vain. A few minutes later, Bradley once saw the dawn of reappearing last season's tactics: he first retracted the midfield and took away Garnacho's defensive attention...
... Then he suddenly pulled the side and received the pass. After breaking through Cucurella beautifully, he was isolated because the team was slowed down for half a beat, and was eventually cut off:
In the 27th minute, Heraffenberg tried to retreat to the center back (Slott replaced Conneret with Jones in the second half to continue this move).
This set of changes allowed Kolkz to be pushed up, and at the same time, Sobosloy's retreat became Konath's goal point. But the central defender hesitated for a moment and chose to pass the side, which made Sobosloy and Bradley stunned - at this time, Kukurelia had lost his position, and the Reds could have reproduced the classic four-for-three situation last season:
Why did the Reds refuse to pass directly, and why did the decisions always slow down? This matter cannot be simply blamed. After a season of data accumulation, the opponent has already studied Slott's routine thoroughly, and now he can simultaneously curb Liverpool's smooth cooperation last season in three areas. If the opponent is allowed to score first, they will be more at ease and bold in setting up a bus to play the Red Army's weaknesses.
However, Chelsea's game also proved that Slott was not unfit: moved Sobosloy to the right back, replaced Jones and Werz, the two "unable to run", and immediately played a delicate cooperation - Jones got rid of Enzo and received the pass from Heraffenberg, and Werz and Sobosloy's position restrained Kukurelia and Kesedo, creating space for Jones to cut into Salah directly:
This type of cooperation was a conventional weapon of the Reds last season. If you want to regroup in the future in the international game, these special skills must be picked up again.
Salah's offensive and defensive bets were a big hit in the final stage of last season. Salah publicly revealed that his defensive tasks under Slott were greatly reduced. He said to Sky Sports bluntly: "I told the coach a long time ago that I can save some energy on the defensive end and guarantee doubled the offensive end."
This venture capital trick once made a lot of money. But now the whole Premier League has figured out this trick, and is specializing in the "two no-door zones" between Salah and the right back behind him..
Take Cucurella on the Chelsea left wing, for example. He focused on this area throughout the game. After the game, he proudly revealed: "Salah always wants to attack. We have already planned it. As long as the pass is in place, there will be space here."
Although Salah will still participate in formation maintenance and initial pressing, when the opponent's targeted tactics meet the reality of his decline at the age of 33, the deal suddenly begins to lose money.
The original intention of the bet was to let Salah grab the ball in a dangerous area and seal his throat with a sword. But the cruel reality this season is: even if he gets the ball, he often handles it in a sloppy manner.
This is why Szoboszlai was so important last season - his vast coverage did a lot of the dirty work. While the Hungarian was back in a more familiar position against Chelsea, the Reds' issues go far beyond Salah's defensive involvement. The team's structure has always been unbalanced since the beginning of the season, and the iron-clad defensive intensity of the championship season has yet to be seen.
Dias and Szoboszlai were originally Slott's most trusted pressing engines, and were the first choice for the ninth and tenth positions. Although the substitutes Wirtz, Isaac and Ekitic worked hard, they were never able to form a coordinated pressing unit when paired with Gakpo and Salah.
Looking back at Galatasaray's penalty kick attack and the initial stage when Esteban scored Chelsea's winning goal, the tragic situation of the Red Army being easily penetrated is shocking-their counterattack in Turkey was in vain...
...Back at Stamford Bridge, it was not much better.
In fact, the Red Army should have been alert before Chelsea scored: when the formation is disjointed, the opponent can pass through six players in red with one pass:
The breakdown of the team's structure and balance was fully exposed in Caicedo's simple cooperation to open the scoring for the Blues - and the person standing on the field at that time was the original midfielder from last season! McAllister's continued slump adds salt to the wound, and it is crucial to wake up the Argentine midfielder as soon as possible: his defensive contribution last season has been seriously underestimated.
There is no one to replace on the wing
When Chelsea coach Maresca was preparing to break the game, there were two sharp wingers in Gittens and Esteban sitting on the bench. On the Red Army side, Salah and Gakpo were sleepwalking throughout the game. Although the latter equalized the score, both of them felt like their feet were filled with lead when holding the ball.
When Slott wanted to change to a wide attacker, only Chiesa was left on the bench. What is even more ironic is that the 17-year-old Ngumoha did not even make the squad for the first time this season. All this highlights the Red Army's tight wing depth and reminds people of the huge hole left by Dias' transfer to Bayern this summer. Salah was the main force last season, and Slott could rotate between Gakpo and Dias most of the time, even asking the latter to step aside from the ninth position when necessary.
This kind of backhand is what is most lacking against Chelsea. Ekitic may be able to fill the vacancy in the future, but his replacement of Isak last Saturday was purely a matter of rotation. Both Wirtz and Frimpong have tried to play on the wing, but so far have not produced convincing performances.
The problem can be concealed when one of them is online, but now Salah and Gakpo are in a downturn at the same time. They must become a more reliable offensive end point. Given that the Red Army's midfield organization is a mess, the two are often trapped in the dilemma of fighting alone.
The poor quality of the shells delivered is one aspect, but learning to keep the ball in adversity is fundamental - this is Diaz's unique skill. He can always win the ball back in various ways, or force the opponent to return to defense to gain time for the team to advance. Salah was also good at this last season. As the Red Army increased the number of long passes to find him, the Egyptian could always rely on his body to get rid of defenders. Unfortunately, these famous scenes are becoming increasingly rare this season.
Slott's substitutions put him in a trap
In the 14 months since he coached Anfield, Slott's substitutions have been brought to the forefront for the first time. In the 74th minute, Isaac, who was playing more smoothly, was replaced (although he missed pre-season preparations due to a transfer farce), which was weird no matter how you looked at it; letting Isaac and Ekitic coexist was originally a season problem, but the weekend was an excellent opportunity to experiment with two forwards.
Leaving Chiesa in hot form, he even moved Hrafenbech to the back line when chasing points - these mysterious operations really make people scratch their heads. Slaughter explained: When the Reds have the ball and attack hard, having a compatriot play as a central defender can speed up the pressure.
This move was reasonable against Crystal Palace a week ago, but the stalemate situation against Chelsea clearly required the defensive hardness of an authentic defender. If Konate is replaced with Joe Gomez, it may be possible to maintain the tie and lay a solid foundation for a comeback victory.
What’s the result? For the second consecutive week, defensive holes were exposed. Sloter's determination to win is worthy of praise, but in recent weeks this stubbornness has cost the team a heavy price in points.
At the beginning of the 24/25 season, his substitutions were once hailed as a stroke of genius: using Joe Gomez as the "goalkeeper" to defend the victory, and the flexible deployment of full-backs produced outstanding results. At the beginning of this season, Chiesa and Ngumoha also made great achievements as substitutes. But recently, his adjustments have frequently hurt others.